In the villages that dot Kodiak Island off the coast of southwest Alaska, mail arrives by plane. It takes at least two days to send ballots to hubs in the archipelago – if the region’s frequent storms don’t ground air traffic.
This is a common problem throughout Alaska. And it’s a big reason the state allows ballots postmarked on Election Day to be counted up to 10 days later, a significant relief for voters in remote communities cut off from the state’s highway system.
That’s why Alaskans across the political spectrum are sounding the alarm about a pending Supreme Court decision. Most judges appear to count late ballots, a decision that will be upheld. That could potentially alienate hundreds of voters in the remote villages of Kodiak and thousands of voters in the remote reaches of The Last Frontier — and upend Alaska’s election process in a state that could determine control of the Senate.
“It’s very important in a place like Kodiak, because absent voting, it’s not a feature here,” said Kodiak Island Borough Mayor Jared Griffin, an independent. “It’s going to really hurt those rural, remote voters.”
A ban on late-arriving ballots could have a major impact on Alaska Natives, many of whom live in rural villages that are already in the process of receiving and returning ballots. Former Democratic Rep. It’s a scenario that raises bipartisan fears of a lackluster vote in the state’s hotly contested Senate race between Mary Peltola and GOP Sen. Dan Sullivan. The competition may decide the control of the chamber.
Democrats in particular are crying foul — accusing Republicans of pushing changes that could alienate members of important Democratic-leaning voting blocs.
Alaska Democratic Party Chairman Eric Croft said of the potential impact on rural and local voters, “It would be devastating. It makes sense.” “It’s going to hurt turnout in rural Alaska. And Mary Peltola is very strong in her home community, and the community she comes from. So I think it’s going to hurt her.”
‘Blunt-force trauma’
President Donald Trump won Alaska by 13 points in 2024. But both parties see a competitive Senate race shaping up.
Peltola has held a narrow edge over Sullivan in a handful of public polls examining the race so far, leading the Republican by 5 percentage points since mid-March. National Democrats see Peltola as a big recruiting win, and have already spent more than $3 million promoting his campaign, according to ad tracking firm AdImpact.
Republicans are also pouring money into the state, a sign they don’t see Sullivan as a lock. The Senate Leadership Fund, a super PAC aligned with Majority Leader John Thune, pledged this week to pump $15 million into the race — a staggering amount for a state of 740,000 people.
At the core of Peltola’s hopes of flipping the state — and possibly the Senate — is growing scores in Bush territory, the term Alaskans use for the vast expanse of isolated villages from the Aleutian Islands to the North Slope that is cut off from the state’s road system and includes many of its indigenous communities.
Alaska Natives make up about 20 percent of the state’s electorate and are a powerful force in its politics. They called Peltola, who is Yupik and has deep roots in the Bethel area, in his 2022 special-election bid against late Rep. Helped upset Don Young to serve the rest of his term in the House. In the November elections of that year, Peltola won a large majority in a predominantly native region, according to one. They have also backed GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowski against right-wing challengers; Sullivan also has ties to the community.
Many Alaska Natives rely on voting by mail, and activists see it as a critical tool in rural areas where voter turnout takes place. This includes Peltola, a constituency represented in the Rajya Sabha.
Ballots come late from all states where more than four-fifths of the communities are cut off from the main road system. But they are slower than those from rural and indigenous communities, mainly from urban and non-tribal areas, according to a brief filed in the Supreme Court by a group of indigenous organizations. In state House District 38, which Peltola represented, about four-fifths of all absentee ballots came after Election Day.
None of those late ballots will be counted if the Supreme Court overturns a five-business-day grace period in Mississippi brought by the Republican National Committee and supported by the Trump administration.
“They want ballot papers in their hands on election day [so] You know the winner that night. That’s tough,” said Democratic state Rep. Maxine Deibert, an Alaska native who represents Fairbanks and the surrounding district in the state’s rural heartland. “There are already barriers to voting.”
A ruling that could come this summer could upend Alaska’s election administration two months before the state’s primary — a worst-case scenario that prompted the state’s Republican Attorney General Stephen Cox to make his final decision. Although Cox did not take sides in the case, he emphasized the “unique challenges” Alaskans face at the polls where unsettled weather can mean mail services and polling places are sometimes understaffed.
Peltola’s campaign said in November it will work to ensure “Alaskans are able to make their voices heard.”
“Everyone eligible to vote should have access to the ballot box, and one-size-fits-all rules from DC rarely work in large rural states like Alaska,” said campaign spokesman Harry Child. “Whether by road, plane or boat, we will get to Alaskans where they are and make sure they can participate in our safe and secure elections.”
Alaska leaders are also pushing for the much-less likely passage of the Save America Act, a set of voting strictures by Trump and his allies that state officials and local activists warn could further disenfranchise rural and Native residents. The bill has stalled in the Senate because of the objections of Alaska’s senior senator, Republican Lisa Murkowski, although Sullivan supports it.
“We’re going through a lot of blunt-ball trauma with this multi-pronged effort to not meet voters where we are,” said Michelle Spark, who runs Get Out the Native Vote, a nonpartisan group dedicated to improving Native turnout.
Senate stakes
Murkowski, who has drawn strong Native support in her campaigns and is backing her former ally Peltolama Sullivan in her re-election bid, has criticized her party’s twin efforts to cut back on mail-in voting and tighten identification requirements, and she warned that the Supreme Court ruling would eliminate any tough times for mail.
“I’ve got a state that relies heavily on mail-in voting,” she told Politico, “and we want to continue that.”
Sullivan has his own ties to Native communities. He has won the support of many federation leaders in his personal capacity. His wife, Julie Fate Sullivan, is a Coyukon Athabaskan and comes from an influential family.
A spokeswoman for Sullivan said the senator believes mail ballots sent on or after the day of the election — even if received later — should be counted.
“Senator Sullivan’s time as Alaska’s attorney general has a record of protecting voting rights for Alaskans, particularly in rural and Alaska Native communities. He believes that every qualified vote cast before or on Election Day should be counted,” Sullivan spokeswoman Amanda Coyne said in a statement. “He also commends Alaska Attorney General Stephen Cox for filing an amicus brief in this case highlighting Alaska’s unique challenges and geography.”
Art Hackney, a veteran GOP operative who runs an outside group supporting Sullivan’s re-election bid, said voters will likely adjust to having to mail their ballots in advance. And he suggested the impact on the Senate race would be negligible.
“It’s just a matter of figuring out how to deal with it,” Hackney said. “The percentage effect, I think you can toss a coin – some this way, some that way. They’re fighting for both. [Native and rural] vote.”
But Democrats, who see Alaska as a potential linchpin to their hopes of regaining the Senate, say the ban could hurt Peltola on his home turf — potentially jeopardizing their broader midterm strategy.
They argue that Alaska has already taken steps to tighten voting rules, pointing to legislation lawmakers sent to GOP Gov. Mike Dunleavy last month that would update voter rolls, create a ballot-tracking system and establish a ballot-curing process.
“These efforts do one thing and one thing only: Disenfranchise people living in rural parts of Alaska,” said Jim Lotsfeld, a longtime Democratic strategist in the state who is not involved in the Senate race. “You could argue that these kinds of things hurt Peltola, because as the first Native woman elected to statewide office, she clearly has the support of Alaska Natives. That’s a key constituency.”
